It was a night like any other when it began. At midnight, the heavens simply froze, locked in place. An unsettling dark fog began to creep in shortly after and with it came the sensation of being watched and followed. Those asleep found their dreams restless and uncomfortable, feeling like something was always lurking just out of their view.

While the town kept the worst of it out, the wilds seemed to become a mess less inviting place than their already unpleasant selves at night. The birds had changed, becoming these black and dark colored terrors, chattering in common tongue. Those who saw them found them to have six glowing red eyes, sharp claws, razor-like wings, and unnatural hooked teeth within their beaks. The beasts fared little better, dark appendages moving about and lashing out at prey, bones grown out of the skin like sharp armor and claws, and the same six eyes. Even the trees seemed more dangerous, with the normal paths suddenly blocked by sticky vines and sharp branches.

Furthermore, the holy temples, shrines, and buildings appeared to be missing, replaced with normal locations of a similar purpose. All forms of travel to other worlds or even space failed as well, and no matter how far one traveled, the same sights greeted them everywhere. Eternal night, unmoving heavens, limited visibility, and frightening wildlife. In some places, additional things had cropped up, such as the glowing ethereal figures moving through the Encampment, flickering and fading out of sight when watched for long.

The two most unsettling things were in wait for those who had a keen eye for detail or supernatural sight. Huge, impossible shadows moved in the distance, only visible as shifting dark patches against the stars, impossible to describe correctly but sending a sensation of utter dread through those who noticed them slowly moving in the distance. Additionally, for the latter, the astral plane seemed almost completely superimposed upon the normal world, with such things blending across and just as affected by it.

The elven arched leaned an open palm against the slick side of obsidian. Nothing. Absolutely no connection of her essence resonated with her obelisk... Well, the eldritch woman enchanted the pre-existing structure made by Russel. A means for the living to communicate with the deceased. Counseling emotional attachments, retrieving secrets from the dead, so long they offered a suitable toll to the willing spirit. Yet Ingrid felt nothing.

"I imagine my problem is likely connected to this everlasting night," she quietly mused to herself. The woman could handle the radiating strangeness floating about the air, at least in its current intensity. But for the rest of Pax, they best solve the issue soon.

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Knight's of Insanity Headquarters

Grathon, being a rather perceptive Knight among the bunch (regarding magic-or in this case, the lack of it), stood dumbfounded by the changes to the Temple above. Their entrance to the HQ managed to retain its guarding function of only allowing Knights to activate it. But for the rest of the holy structure, all the sensors detected absence of Au'Marui's divine presence. "Strange, very strange," the grey immortal muttered in the comms room, flipping the screens around to make an announcement.

"Everyone inside: the God of Insanity's essence has departed from his temple. Further scans detect changes in the local woods, a peculiar aura that I can't discern at the time being."

Coolpikaaa yawned, leaning back in his chair with a wooden creak. He had been up late, piecing together computer parts "borrowed" from Blackstar when the realm had been temporarily opened. He wasn't sure what exactly he was making, but it felt good to tinker again all the same.

"... What time is it now?" The electric mouse asked, wiping off a screwdriver with a sheet of paper towel.

"One. Eleven. A-M." Replied the small device on the table.

He had been watching the sky now for some time. The moon was framed perfectly in the window of his bedroom suite above the Horn and Halo... exactly as it had been for over an hour. It hadn't moved in the slightest. Curious, Cp set his tools on the table, and leaped up to the windowsill. He sprang down to the eaves, then to a nearby tree, and the ground. Something simply didn't feel right.

He strolled casually to the edge of town, taking in the night air. Once or twice he thought he saw someone move in the edge of his vision, only to turn around and see no one there. Now that he was here though... the grass itself seemed more coarse just outside the city limits. The flowers too seemed to react to his presence, tilting as though they knew he was there. This was very bad. This was something he had seen before...

Birds began to land on the branches near him, making CP slide back into the lighting of town. Hook clawed birds, with razor wings and many eyes. Exactly what he expected when The Collector had corrupted an area. But this was... everywhere.

::Tom stood over his table. On it was some plans rolled out. A large structure to be sure, but it had a garage for his hovercraft, a paddock and stable for his raptors, and a much larger living area - including guest rooms. Just about everything his current accommodations lacked. He rolled them up quickly, they'd have to wait. Looking outside again, he sighed to himself, and checking the charge on his leg, stepped outside, where some of the townspeople waited on him::

Tom: Everyone, please, Please! Keep calm. I don't know what's going on any more than any of you. We have people more versed in this sort of stuff looking into it. But right now the safest thing you can do is return home and wait it out. If anything else happens we'll let you know.

Veltassa, the vulpine alien who attended the Communal Halls of Worship had woken up in the night due to a terrible feeling that had crept over her fur and disturbed her sleep.

Veltassa donned her usual robe and then looked out of her window. Oh. That was probably bad. And if something was probably bad, then the town would likely have been hit too. Veltassa padded out to go and ask anyone there if they knew what was going on.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town, the strange mutant hybrid called Blue walked over. Or she would have been walking if she were currently not giving out so much energy that the ground was melting where her footprints would have been, and the air around her shimmered with icomparable heat. Blue was surrounded by white, fiery crackling pure energy, so much so it was even pouring out of her eyes. Yet she was looking for help-or looking to help. Either way, the floating forward hybrid with her wings tightly folded was certainly a sight to see, and absolutely glowing so you could see her coming for a long way through the trees. On her back underneath the outpour was a golden cloak resilient enough to take this-her normal clothes had melted away, so it was lucky she had this.

While the progenitor of their ichor hadn't noticed the internal changes just yet, those the Knight of Insanity shared with would experience severe exhaustion. The potency of the divine blood waned as the volume remained the same. Flame Guards, who weren't too drained and forced to revert to their Endo-Skeleton forms, either rested to recover what energy their now limited batteries could handle... Or siphoned more power from Solveig Mundil to maintain a degree of usefulness. Usually ones outside of the Temple grounds.

-I know, I know. 'Just told Grathon,- the huldra knight collapsed against a tree. So many threads calling out for energy, she had guessed most of it went to waste. Between the copies unable to hold even a moderate charge, or lost via transmission. Solveig was only mortal. -Just... Just get back to the Temple. Immediately.-

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For those homunculi, they too shared a similar fate. Seianti and Priscus slumped in their chairs, with great difficulty staying awake. Sergius likely went back to check with those 'birds' out in the forest. The only one among the four who felt largely fine was Sethre.

The Dragon Knight, after a bit of work, managed to shift into his other self. Brief communication with the other three homunculi confirmed suspicions that their ichor has been nerfed in some manner. Luckily the Iron Dragon could handle himself right now, though watched over the Tower in case of potential attacks.

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Ingrid carefully walked through the streets. It almost felt like she has been hit with one of those 'Eggs' at her current power levels. She needed to figure out the source of this problem soon, so why not ask-

"Veltassa. There you are," the elven woman called out. "Do you have any idea what the cause of this... Or that, for the matter," she pointed in the direction of the energy surge Blue had manifested. At least Ingrid could sense power in this state.

Veltassa looked up at Ingrid as she called her name, her large Fennec fox like ears laid back on her head. "I don't know, something doesn't feel right. Something feels... like it's missing" She then looked over to weird light show. "... I don't know about that"

::Tom also spotted the light show right after he convinced everyone to shelter in their homes. He'd have given anything to bet that this event had something to do with that. He takes his charm on his arm and with a though unfolds it into a knife, revealing the bit of egg metal it was made with. ::

A sudden wave of energy shot across the ground, blowing things like a gust of wind. With it came a distant but rising cry of "get off me" repeated over and over in a voice that was all too familiar. Knocked down a bit, certainly, but Zerexe was as ever Zerexe, a torrent of energy and now growing anger. A bright light began to form around where she was, a fair way away from town, and uncomfortably close to one of those shadow behemoths.

At the same time, the local shade wizard walked out of his shop to look about. Hooooly crap. What the hell happened here?

Veltassa stared at the other light show, now one ear flicked forwards whilst the other flicked back on her head in uncertain curiousity-until the yell, that is, and the 3 foot tall vulpine raised her hands to plug her ears at the yelling. "Something's not right... something's keeping the gods down-What happened to your obelisk?"

Meanwhile, the seriously leaking energetic Blue rotated towards the yells from Zerexe in a fluid floating floating motion, before tilting her head as all the trees around her blackened into charcoal and the luckier ones only caught fire. Fortunately they were the plants within and just next to the fire like substance that surrounded her and just past was cooler.

Blue floated towards the curious sound, a vague sense of familiarity getting through to the hybrid, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake.

Ingrid paused to stare back at the booming blasts. If she had to wager a guess (something she hated to do in such situations), then that closest surge of energy might be related to one of those 'women of destruction.' Not much in her current arsenal, the elf readied the bow which had laid along her back out in front. At least she might be able to slow the chaos down.

Standing at the epicenter of this raging torrent of energy was the expected Zerexe. Though, looking at it, standing was a really poor description, and a more accurate one would be violently lashing out around herself in a maelstrom of chaos while the flipped around and claws at a black glob of something stuck on her chest, her enraged and progressively less stable sound cries of "get off me" picking up speed and being matched with raw energy ripping off her. Whatever had gotten on her wasn't coming off and had her in a genuine panic.

Blue levitated along until she could see Zerexe bouncing all around in a panic, but did naught but stare as she gave off her own energetic discharges. It's hard to tell what she was thinking, if she was even thinking at all. A normal Blue would have rushed in.... bu5 Blue seemed in no state to do that.

The elven woman narrower eyes, preparing herself to release the taut string. Her two siblings could only transmit a marginal boost of power from where they were located at. Hardly much to work with. Ingrid had hoped that the combined attributes do the trick. One shot, maybe two. She struggled building up the otherwise waning confidence as her first arrow took flight.

Sleek along its polished wooden shaft, the projectile cleave with the fury of a lancer in their champion strike. The sharpened obsidian blade churned by the unified motivations directing its course. Rage empowered its swiftful chase, bending through the wind in its own path. Order beckoned the entire being to remain firm in resolve upon potential impact... And the Herald's own Fear to aid in distancing whatever saught to plague the golden woman in her fit of fury.

Divide into three... Encircle Zerexe... And attempt to either reveal or remove her affliction...

Floating over to the distressed young goddess whilst still setting fire to the surroundings, the ramped up Blue tilted her head one way, then the next before making a flicking motion of this strange hyper heated, hyper condensed white energy that wasn't at all Celestial at the creature-promptly followed by flicking the same 'spears of light' at everyone else she could see.